Organizations which own, control or manage multiple sites such as businesses, property management groups, or government entities, are faced with a management and communication problem in that such remote and dispersed sites often include one or more continuously and independently operating fire alarm systems, security systems, building control systems or the like to monitor some or all of the regions of the respective properties. It's known to provide a communication link from fire monitoring systems to a local fire department for purposes of reporting one or more alarm conditions. However, such communication links do not necessarily provide warnings or alarm indications to organizational management which might be displaced hundreds of miles from the respective facility. Such links may not transfer information relative to the other types of systems.
While some properties are easily accessible, others may be remotely located and difficult to access. Hence, there continues to be an ongoing need to be able to remotely access, through dedicated lines or dial-up lines, displaced regional monitoring systems such as fire monitoring systems, security systems, building control systems or the like for diagnostic and maintenance purposes, downloading revised control software to reflect new construction or building renovations as well as to upgrade with additional features and the like. Preferably such communications could be carried out without having to create or establish dedicated communication systems to serve remote monitoring systems where such communication systems do not already exist. Preferably, usage of existing computer networks, such as the Internet, could be expanded to support such communications with displaced monitoring systems.